Thatcher & Unemployment
Unemployment
 rising throughout the 1970s
 it peaked in 1983  with over 3 million out of work.
 Post WW2: Nationalization of most industries.
o The Keynesian ideal of full employment as a goal for the state
 The 80s: Marked a shift from the established provision of social security
towards a model that assigned new rights and duties to the unemployed.
 Rieger  investigates how new neoliberal forms influenced the welfare state:
o hwith focus on unemployment policies.
o Neoliberalism; conservative values, more liberal labour market and a
more ‘controlling’ and strong state
o consequently, not the same as a liberal laissez-faire approach with the
minimalist state as the ideal.
 unemployment in the 80’s is interesting to explore in this context
o Firstly, the high numbers of unemployed individuals in this period
3,4 mio. in 1986.
o Secondly, the increased social inequality  the Gini coefficient, which
measures income inequality on a scale from 0  all receive the same
income to 1  one person receives all income);
 rose by 34 % per cent from 0,267 to 0,35 between 1979 and
1990.
Background and preconditions:
 during the 70s  due to the oil crisis in 1973 Already rising numbers of
unemployed
 More unpredictable economy intensive international competition
deindustrialization and expanding service sector
o higher demand of skilled and educated employees.
 Massive unemployment throughout the European countries:
o The unemployment rate between 1980-87: Britain 10,5 %.
 Large births groups entered the workforce in the late 70s and early 80s.
 A prominent feature  Youth unemployment
 In Spite Of drastic numbers the overall number of working Britons rose
from 24,1 to 26,3 million between 1971 and 1989.
 Explanations higher female involvement, more parttime work and the
expanding service sector.
 Thatcher entered office The problem of unemployment already a difficult
assignment for previous governments
 Trade unions  less power  Miners’ Strike 1984-85.
o Union mass declined from over 55 % in 1979 to 35 % in 1993.
A ‘worthy’ unemployed?
 Not new that unemployed viewed with suspicion  in the 20s Conservative
politicians wanted unemployed to prove that they were ‘genuinely seeking
work’ as a condition for welfare benefits.
 Benefit fraud at its height in the 30s, in the mid-70s one conservative MP
accused one-fifth of welfare recipients of being cheats.
Reactions to the welfare state in crisis:
 Budget control New Public Management
 Services Private suppliers, free choice
 Workfare strategies  from passive to active labour market policies  the
carrot/stick
 Less state more individual and market
Source:
Rieger, Bernhard. “Making Britain Work Again: Unemployment and the Remaking of
British Social Policy in the Eighties*.” The English Historical Review 133, no. 562
(June 2, 2018): 634–66.
SUTCLIFFE-BRAITHWAITE, FLORENCE. “NEO-LIBERALISM AND MORALITY IN THE
MAKING OF THATCHERITE SOCIAL POLICY.” The Historical Journal 55, no. 2 (2012):
497–520